misery at Vancouver housing cost?
Sep 17th 2015, 6:43 am
#196
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 0
Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
Looking at MLS seems everywhere we could afford are fixer uppers, so question then becomes, do 2 people who don't know how to build things, put flooring in etc, go for a fixer upper and attempt to fix said house up......
Cranbrook had a bit of a few in decent shape, kamloops not much unless you got to be 45 mins out, not sure how bad the commute is in that region and if commuting to kamloops is viable.
Campbell River has some in need of a lot of work fixer uppers but they are nowhere to being close to livable until repairs are done.
Lots of time to find the right part of the province, if one didn't need to work, lots of small places in BC with really affordable houses, but the trouble is the commuting to get a job since those places seem fairly distant from employment.
Cranbrook had a bit of a few in decent shape, kamloops not much unless you got to be 45 mins out, not sure how bad the commute is in that region and if commuting to kamloops is viable.
Campbell River has some in need of a lot of work fixer uppers but they are nowhere to being close to livable until repairs are done.
Lots of time to find the right part of the province, if one didn't need to work, lots of small places in BC with really affordable houses, but the trouble is the commuting to get a job since those places seem fairly distant from employment.
Sep 17th 2015, 2:43 pm
#197
Oscar nominated
Joined: Jan 2008
Location: Moncton, NB, CANADA
Posts: 50,827
Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
I imagine there may be some who describe a house as a fixer upper because the kitchen doesn't have an island
or the bathroom has a bath but no actual shower.Sometimes today's "needs updating" becomes tomorrow's "original features"
Sep 17th 2015, 5:38 pm
#198
Pea Brain
Joined: Jun 2005
Location: TBD
Posts: 6,005
Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
Kamloops commuting is a breeze. I used to drive 28km to work, it took under 25 minutes.
Sep 17th 2015, 5:41 pm
#199
Yo
Joined: Nov 2012
Location: UK
Posts: 24,474
Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
We did talk to Van city today, based on current income and situation we would not qualify for a traditional mortgage which is what the other banks and mortgage brokers have said.
Van City has a mortgage they call spring board that is for low income people living in non-profit housing which we do. Van City provides 20% down payment and mortgage which is based on your current rent.
The initial term is locked in for 10 years, where 80% of the payment goes to the down payment pay off, and 20% goes towards the mortgage, after the 10 years the remaining terms are like other mortgages are as the down payment is paid off.
We are not in a position to utilize this program at the moment, but unless our income goes up substantially this might be the only option for us to own.
But how knows, was worth the time with them to learn more about it.
The house has to be in BC as they don't finance outside of BC.
If you sell in the first 5 years there are substantial penalties, if you sell from year 5 to year 10 there is a 3 month interest penalty, year 10 onward no penalties.
Van City has a mortgage they call spring board that is for low income people living in non-profit housing which we do. Van City provides 20% down payment and mortgage which is based on your current rent.
The initial term is locked in for 10 years, where 80% of the payment goes to the down payment pay off, and 20% goes towards the mortgage, after the 10 years the remaining terms are like other mortgages are as the down payment is paid off.
We are not in a position to utilize this program at the moment, but unless our income goes up substantially this might be the only option for us to own.
But how knows, was worth the time with them to learn more about it.
The house has to be in BC as they don't finance outside of BC.
If you sell in the first 5 years there are substantial penalties, if you sell from year 5 to year 10 there is a 3 month interest penalty, year 10 onward no penalties.
Sep 17th 2015, 6:40 pm
#200
Account Closed
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 0
Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
Have to save closing costs and also figure out exactly where we want to go and such. We don't want to rush. If we had closing costs we could do it now of we had a good idea of where to move we want to visit locations and not rush.
Bristol- from what I can tell and what the listing says looks like a senior lived in most and never updated anything but still living in them or they have renters in them.
A few are complete dumps though.
Bristol- from what I can tell and what the listing says looks like a senior lived in most and never updated anything but still living in them or they have renters in them.
A few are complete dumps though.
Sep 17th 2015, 7:42 pm
#201
Oscar nominated
Joined: Jan 2008
Location: Moncton, NB, CANADA
Posts: 50,827
Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
Over the back of us was a house for sale. About the same price as that other one I linked but quite a bit bigger.
It was advertised as needing bit more than fixing up, but it had been lived in the whole time we've been here.
From the photos it seemed the decor was 90% of the problem. Just painting all the walls would have made a huge difference.
I think it was snapped up in two weeks.
Sep 17th 2015, 8:04 pm
#202
Account Closed
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 0
Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
Most in our range in any good sized city will be a dump but outside of those areas in small towns more options acailable. Will take a lot of research and visiting places to get a feel. We eliminate the entire lower mainland and Squamish right away though....
I suppose with the prices over that way, cheap may well mean dump.
Over the back of us was a house for sale. About the same price as that other one I linked but quite a bit bigger.
It was advertised as needing bit more than fixing up, but it had been lived in the whole time we've been here.
From the photos it seemed the decor was 90% of the problem. Just painting all the walls would have made a huge difference.
I think it was snapped up in two weeks.
Over the back of us was a house for sale. About the same price as that other one I linked but quite a bit bigger.
It was advertised as needing bit more than fixing up, but it had been lived in the whole time we've been here.
From the photos it seemed the decor was 90% of the problem. Just painting all the walls would have made a huge difference.
I think it was snapped up in two weeks.
Sep 17th 2015, 9:00 pm
#203
Yo
Joined: Nov 2012
Location: UK
Posts: 24,474
Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
Have to save closing costs and also figure out exactly where we want to go and such. We don't want to rush. If we had closing costs we could do it now of we had a good idea of where to move we want to visit locations and not rush.
Bristol- from what I can tell and what the listing says looks like a senior lived in most and never updated anything but still living in them or they have renters in them.
A few are complete dumps though.
Bristol- from what I can tell and what the listing says looks like a senior lived in most and never updated anything but still living in them or they have renters in them.
A few are complete dumps though.
Sep 17th 2015, 10:20 pm
#204
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 0
Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
It won't be the easiest task, but it's a big province and we only need to be within 45 minutes or so from a decent sized place so we have a chance at jobs.
Oct 10th 2015, 8:54 am
#205
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Posts: 0
Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
A town house across the street sold in Dec/2013 for 270,000 just recently sold for 419,000. Not a bad increase if the person selling is the same one that bought it in Dec 2013.
They are building town homes like man now, went from nothing being built to a ton being built, too bad none of them are affordable, 330,000+.
They are building town homes like man now, went from nothing being built to a ton being built, too bad none of them are affordable, 330,000+.
Oct 10th 2015, 12:20 pm
#206
Oscar nominated
Joined: Jan 2008
Location: Moncton, NB, CANADA
Posts: 50,827
Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
Nice profit...although they may have to pay a similar amount extra if buying somewhere else to live so there may not be much overall difference.
Oct 10th 2015, 2:40 pm
#207
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 0
Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
True, all depends on if it was owner occupied or an investment property that was rented out. A lot of investment properties are being sold now which has created a major shortage of rentals, but investors are turning nice profits if they bought before 2014 when prices skyrocketed nearly overnight.
Oct 10th 2015, 2:59 pm
#208
Yo
Joined: Nov 2012
Location: UK
Posts: 24,474
Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
A town house across the street sold in Dec/2013 for 270,000 just recently sold for 419,000. Not a bad increase if the person selling is the same one that bought it in Dec 2013.
They are building town homes like man now, went from nothing being built to a ton being built, too bad none of them are affordable, 330,000+.
They are building town homes like man now, went from nothing being built to a ton being built, too bad none of them are affordable, 330,000+.
Oct 10th 2015, 4:11 pm
#209
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 0
Re: misery at Vancouver housing cost?
Condo's haven't moved much price wise compared to single family houses and town houses.
Squamish is a fairly young town with a lot of couples with kids, so the demand is for town houses and single family homes.
Squamish is a fairly young town with a lot of couples with kids, so the demand is for town houses and single family homes.
